


Dreaming of Making History

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: Soulmate Dreams [12]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Look Out It's Canon Year, M/M, Major Character Injury, Multi, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27721721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Viktor's healing nicely from his injuries, and he's having a blast coaching his husband as they go into the next season.  He's absolutely certain that his Yuuri will surprise everyone when he takes the ice to perform a love theme, even as predictable as the theme might be for the two of them.  Yuri's skates would be equally surprising, and hopefully, a good distraction from all the soulmate nonsense that would be coming his way over the next year or so.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, many background relationships - Relationship
Series: Soulmate Dreams [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/684434
Comments: 27
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! And it's CANON YEAR!
> 
> Hit my NaNo goal early. Almost done with the draft. Yay!

Yuuri had not wanted to start the day with an early morning phone call. Phichit seemed to sense that from the cranky greeting, as he began apologizing. “I didn’t think about the time difference, sorry, I just got the best birthday present I could imagine and I wanted to share right away!”

“Is it a hamster?” Yuuri said through the yawn. He glanced over at where Viktor was sleeping and decided to go out to the hallway to finish this call. It had gotten a lot better, but Viktor was still having trouble sleeping sometimes, thanks to the broken ribs.

“No, not a hamster, better than that.”

Yuuri blinked a couple times. Was he still asleep, or had his best friend been replaced by a pod person? “Better than a hamster? Have Seung Gil and I finally convinced you of the joy of dogs?”

“No, dogs are great but hamsters are better, but this isn’t about animals at all. I’m going home!”

“Okay…?” Phichit loved Thailand, yes, but a vacation home was better than a hamster? This didn’t make any sense. “Phichit, how drunk are you…?”

“Not. Okay, I’ve had a couple beers, but I’m not gonna have a problem getting home and I’m not making things up. I’m going home to stay, Yuuri. Not a visit. I’m moving back to Thailand.”

“You’re leaving Celestino?!” Coaching changes happened, but Yuuri had thought Phichit and Celestino were doing great.

“No, no, nothing like that. It’s just… Otabek proved that there are coaches who are willing to work wherever there are promising skaters, you and Viktor proved that coaches and skaters don’t need to be in the same country if there’s good communication… Celestino and I have been talking about it for a while now and tonight he gave me the contract to sign to have a coach who’s in Bangkok with me full-time. And Amy’s gonna come with me! I wasn’t expecting that, but her soulmate is in Thailand for work, so I’ll have a rinkmate right away. Ciao Ciao’s going to come visit when he can, and of course we’ll be sending video and stuff back and forth, but I get to be in Thailand to promote Thai skating! I’ve already told Ciao Ciao what I’m doing for my short program.”  
“Let me guess… it’s finally time for ‘Shall We Skate’?” Yuuri guessed. Phichit had been wanting to skate to it since before Yuuri had met him, and then he kept not. He said he didn’t feel like he was ready, but with being home – and having taken a bronze medal at Four Continents – it seemed like time.

“Exactly! This is going to be a big year for me.”

“Is Seung Gil going to come to Thailand?”

“Not now. It’s still a lot closer, so it’ll be a lot easier to visit each other without an ocean in the way, but Min So won’t let him come until after the 2018 Olympics. Which is fine, we’re not you and Viktor. Long distance isn’t a problem for us.”

“Congratulations, Phichit. I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks! Sorry for waking you up.”

“I wasn’t going to get much more sleep today anyway, I’m going with Yuri to the airport, don’t worry about it. But while you’re on the phone… are you still in contact with Ketty?”

“Yeah, of course, why do you ask?”

“Viktor gave me the music and composer’s notes for the piece he’s going to use for my short program, and I’ve been thinking about the free skate. Viktor usually commissions custom music, so I thought I’d give it a shot myself, and Ketty came to mind. Can you ask her if she’d be willing to give it a try?”

“Sure, I’ll give her contact info and ask her to call you. Any spoilers you can give me to give her?”

“Well…” Yuuri was glad Phichit couldn’t see the blush. “My theme is love, and the story I’ve got in mind is kind of a fictional autobiography. What I think would have happened if we didn’t get told who our soulmates are and we had to find them ourselves.”

“Yeah, I bet Ketty can work with that,” Phichit agreed. “Tell Yuri to have fun in Kazakhstan!”

Yuri didn’t need to be told to have fun in Kazakhstan. He was going to hang out with his best friend and another good friend and there was no reason to expect any kind of family drama to crop up. The worst of it was going to be convincing Otabek’s grandmother that they weren’t dating, they were friends, and the only way that changed is if soulmate dreams worked out that way.

Olivia wasn’t due until August, and if Viktor would approve the extra vacation time, he was going to go visit in September sometime. Hopefully, he’d be able to work it so that he could go for Lorenzo’s birthday without missing Ryoko’s. If not, well, he’d get out there at some point. Where he and Yuuri were assigned in the Grand Prix and how they did would determine things. There wouldn’t be enough time to both see his sisters in New York and his siblings in Italy between Nationals and Europeans, and his sisters would always take priority, but he could go between Europeans and Worlds for sure. Let the old man focus on Yuuri before Four Continents.

Which reminded him he had a question for Viktor. He assumed that for Nationals, Viktor was going to go with Yuuri and ask Yakov to take Yuri for the competition, but there was the possibility of Viktor deciding he hated coaching or missed skating too much and getting through rehab and back into shape to compete by December. Yuri sure hoped Viktor would make it back by then, because he wanted to win his first national championship over Viktor. No matter what, people would say he only won this year because Viktor got hurt and either couldn’t compete or couldn’t prepare properly. He’d live with it. He’d even live with losing to Viktor this year, as long as Viktor was still there next year. The thing was, would Viktor come back? Ever? What if he loved coaching?

And now Yuri was starting to sound like Katsudon. Great. He turned up the music to try to drown out his thought processes. It helped – for a bit. Otabek’s mixes were awesome. But then, the music Lilia had sent for his free skate came on. He didn’t mind the music too much – sure, lame classical music wasn’t his thing, but he’d read the notes Lilia sent with it and it was at least better than his short program. He’d tried to get Yuuri to switch with him, but Viktor wouldn’t let them, and Yuuri, surprisingly, didn’t want to. Yuri didn’t buy the explanation that Yuuri already had his costume and a good idea to work his choreography around. There was no way Yuuri skated a program based on sex without bursting into flames.

On the other hand, Viktor’s explanation was so hypocritical that Yuri had kicked him several times until he explained better. Viktor wouldn’t let him skate a program based on sex because he was fifteen. Never mind that Viktor had designed a costume based on bondage and lingerie to wear at fifteen. On the other hand, Yuri couldn’t argue that Viktor’s fanbase had been much more reasonable when he was fifteen than Yuri’s Angels were. Viktor’s parents had been dead by then, but if they’d been alive, they’d have been shocked and protective about their fifteen-year-old son being sexualized in the media, not complicit. Not like Lev, wherever the hell he’d found a rock to hide under now. Soulmate speculation on Viktor had been innocent and reasonable, unlike the bullshit with Yuri, and with sixteen coming up and Yuri having made the mistake of saying sixteen in the media instead of eighteen, that bullshit was going to start being unavoidable no matter what Yuri did.

At least agape was something Yuri could understand and had experienced from both sides. Any time he started having trouble connecting to his program, he just had to think of his sisters or his grandpa. Sure, the music was lame and he’d seen the costume Viktor was going to go with and it sucked, but unlike last time he did a short program with an angel theme, there shouldn’t be any problem with his performance scores.

The soulmate stuff, though, that was going to get annoying. Most of his friends who were turning eighteen in the next year already had soulmates, but that wasn’t going to stop anyone from shipping. Mila would be eighteen in less than a month, Emil a few weeks after her. October was probably going to be the worst of it, with Otabek not having a soulmate he knew about already and he’d heard a couple whispers about Matthieu, since he seemed to like French skaters. Richard was thoroughly disgusted by that idea. After the new year, Guang Hong, and sharing a soulmate with Leo was a lot more palatable to Yuri than sharing with either Crispino. He didn’t have anything against Sara other than her brother, but Michele was very much not someone Yuri wanted to deal with if he didn’t have to. Another French skater, this time one of the ladies who Richard said was at least kind of cool but Yuri didn’t know at all. Hopefully Matthieu and Margot had the decency to let things drag out to his birthday like he’d said, but he wasn’t going to be too big a dick. Especially not to Margot, three weeks wasn’t worth arguing about that much.

That was still nearly a year away, though. Viktor’s decision about a comeback was months away. He was hoping to get cleared to at least do stuff like running or dancing soon, even if getting onto the ice was still a long way away. Right in front of him was an even scarier prospect. Otabek’s grandmother had insisted on meeting Otabek’s boyfriend. He’d explained repeatedly that Yuri was not his boyfriend, that they were friends and would not date unless they were soulmates, but apparently, his grandmother wasn’t having that. At least she wasn’t assuming Yuri was dating Dariya, unlike some of his Angels.

Yuuri reached out and gave him a hug. “That’s your flight, Yuri. Call when you land, we’re here if there’s trouble and you need us, but have fun.”

“Yeah. I’ll do that. Get off me.” Yuri halfheartedly pushed Yuuri away. “Bye.”

Normally, Yuuri went with Viktor to doctor appointments. Today, with Yuuri off at the airport with Yuri, Mari went instead. Naturally, this is the one that gave Viktor the news he’d been hoping for for weeks now. “I’ll trust your judgment about what’s likely to cause falls and what’s not, but I don’t see any reason you can’t get on the ice for basic skating. No jumps for sure, I would avoid the tricky steps and spins, but if you want to do some choreography that should be fine. Running, light weights – don’t go above 10 kilos, but more weight than you’ve been able to lift.”

“Including Ryoko! She’s less than that!” Viktor started clapping. “Yuuri’s going to be so mad he missed this appointment.”

“But you aren’t,” Mari guessed. “You get to surprise him.”

“I want to go home. I want to pick up my baby and give her a big hug for all the hugs I’ve missed in the past month.” Viktor got to his feet. “Thank you, doctor. I promise to be careful, but I hope you understand.”

“Of course I do. I have a granddaughter about the same age as your little girl. I can’t imagine what my daughter would feel if she couldn’t hug her.”

On the way home, Mari kept looking at Viktor oddly. Finally, Viktor couldn’t take it anymore. “What is it?”

“I’ve been hearing rumors around town that you and Minako are cooking up a competition for the end of the month, Yuri against Yuuri. Any truth to that?”

Viktor winked at Mari. “It’s hardly fair to either of them, considering neither of them have choreography for their programs, and Yuuri doesn’t even have his free skate music at all yet! I wouldn’t ask either of them to compete a program they’ve only been working on for less than a month. Now, June… that one, we might do. I wonder where the rumors are coming from?”

“Probably the triplets.” Viktor had to grin. He could totally see that, the triplets making something up just for the fun of it and it getting around their kindergarten class. They were in their last year at kindergarten, and looking forward to going to a real school the next spring. Viktor wasn’t all that sure about Japanese kindergarten, and he and Yuuri had already talked about one of the downsides to moving to Hasetsu after retirement – Yuuri did not want his kids going to the school that had given him so much trouble he’d abandoned it and the country at fourteen. Living in Fukuoka would be better, at least as far as school went, as they would be able to look at several different schools.

“So… Coach Viktor, how are you liking it?” Mari interrupted his thoughts. “Completely aside from any thoughts of a comeback, what are you thinking of coaching?”

“I’m thinking that I haven’t been a coach long enough to really think anything of it. Especially with one of my students being Yuuri, who is a coach’s dream – respectful, willing to listen when given instructions or suggestions, but self-sufficient in the event of a coach needing to focus on other things. Winning gold medals no matter what the coach does or doesn’t do, as long as the coach believes in him. And Yuri – Yuri is going to be an unusual problem. It’s not motivating him to learn skills and practice diligently. He knows what he has to do if he wants to win against me or my Yuuri. It’s holding him back and helping him remember there’s more to life than skating. I’ve got a ton of support there, too, what with his friends and his sisters. Far more than I had at his age, when I was at risk for getting lost in skating. If it weren’t for Yuuri… has he told you how he’s casting me in his fictional autobiography?”

“Ice prince playboy whose charm and carefree cheer mask a deep loneliness and depression? Yeah, he’s shown me. It’s a great story, but I’m glad I never had to watch my brother live it.” Mari patted Viktor’s shoulder. “You either, even though I’d have been watching from afar. Do you really think that you would drop your career for him?”

“It’s quite likely. The chance to find that connection, to come back to life from the hell of not having anything? I don’t need it, I’ve got real love grounding me and helping me to live a real life, but he doesn’t. He would do just about anything to get it.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri in Kazakhstan! Meet Otabek's family.

As cool as it would be for Otabek to pick him up at the airport on his motorcycle, it wasn’t practical. Yuri had luggage. So it was something of a surprise when he found the helmet flying at him. The helmet was awesome, black with orange tiger stripes on it, but why give it to him here?

Otabek was there with Dariya and another woman, who Yuri didn’t know but guessed must be his older sister Rayana. He hadn’t ever really thought about it, but it was something of a surprise to see her wearing the headscarf. “You guys are Muslim?”

“Yes, technically,” Dariya said, rolling her eyes. “Grandma takes it seriously enough that we’re a lot stricter on following halal and stuff around her, but when we’re out of the country, I don’t even bother with the prayers most of the time.”

“Which has nothing to do with Mom and Dad being stubborn about me taking her if I leave the country after my birthday,” Otabek said. “Mom figures we’ll get around to doing things right when we get there, and Dad doesn’t care as long as we’re willing to behave around Grandma.”

“They’re more upset about me wearing hijab than they are about Otabek eating katsudon or Dariya’s skating costumes,” Rayana added. “My mother-in-law is Turkish and she asked me to give it a try, and I like it. Might get interesting when my daughters are old enough to start getting pressure, because Kazakhstan’s not exactly… it’s not the tradition here. There’s even some talk about banning hijab in schools.”

“Come on. Rayana’s here to get your luggage, and then I’m taking you home the fun way. On my new bike. Selim had it ready and waiting for me when I got here.” So that explained the helmet. “Helmet is yours to keep, I know it’s a few months before you can get your own license but already having a helmet is a good argument in favor of Yakov or Viktor letting you work toward it.”

“Not even sure whether I could, in Japan.” He’d look into it, maybe, but probably better to just wait for next summer. “By the time we get back to Russia, it’ll be too close to the season for me to even really want to work on something like that. Got enough to do with my senior debut and regular schoolwork and Yuuri teaching me Italian, no sense adding fighting with Yakov over the motorcycle.”

“Fair enough. Let’s go.” Otabek led the way to the baggage claim.

Once they had everything, Dariya smacked Yuri’s hand away from a handle. “You boys have a motorcycle ride to get to. Rayana and I can get this.”

“Trust me, my sisters are perfectly capable. If you’d brought Potya, that would be different, but there’s no reason for us to stick around,” Otabek confirmed. “Besides, I’ve already paid the bribe. Babysitting last week.”

Yuri had planned to fight, but between Dariya’s scowl and Otabek having already paid, he decided to let it go. “Fine, then. Thank you.”

The motorcycle ride was awesome, everything Yuri had always dreamed of. Even with his helmet on, his hair was long enough that he could feel the wind in it underneath, and Otabek was as good a driver as promised. Careful, certainly, but the freedom of riding through the streets with his best friend was more than enough without going crazy and risking injury.

They arrived at Otabek’s apartment, just in time to see Rayana’s car pull in. She waved. “Okay, so keep in mind I’ve been in this apartment all of two weeks,” Otabek warned. “There’s a lot of stuff I don’t have yet, because I was waiting for my first official government stipend.”

“First? Shouldn’t you have been getting one for a while now?” Yuri would be getting his first in July, once his move to seniors became official with the start of the new season. If they’d been waiting for sixteen, or eighteen, that would be one thing, but he couldn’t see any reason for it to kick in now.

“Okay, the first that’s getting paid directly to me instead of immediately handed over to my hosts,” Otabek allowed. “Alain offered to give me the last one they were supposed to get since I was leaving in April, but I turned it down. After everything they did for me, it just felt right. If it meant that I didn’t have a properly stocked kitchen for a few weeks, well, I have what I need to make cereal and the next proper meal I prepare here will be my first. Family and friends had a whole thing planned for who got me when to welcome me home.”

“Wow. They did know I was coming now?”

“Right. Almost everyone who wanted a turn having me over for dinner has had one, I eat lunch at the rink most of the time, and Grandma, well… we’re going there Tuesday night for dinner because she insisted on waiting for you anyway.” Yuri suppressed the groan. He was really looking forward to this trip, but that was one part he was kind of dreading. “Tonight I figured you wouldn’t want to do much, so we’re getting delivery. Mom and Dad are expecting us at some point while you’re here, and of course my friends are demanding to get to meet you, too.” Otabek paused. “The other thing I should warn you about is that after you leave, Dariya is taking over the room you’re using. I convinced Mom and Dad to let it be a trial run so they could see that I’m responsible and willing to look out for my sister, while they’re still here to see exactly what’s going on and step in if they feel the need. Therefore, I let her pick out some decorations. I know you’re not going to have a problem with the snow leopards and her taste in bands is pretty good, but there’s a poster of you in there. Official merchandise from the superhero free skate, nothing creepy, but I know how weird it can be walking into somewhere and getting ambushed like that. Especially for you.”

Yuri snorted. “Yeah, I trust Dariya, but thanks for the warning. Is it autographed?”

“Nope. If you wanted to autograph it while you’re here, I bet she wouldn’t mind, but she thinks it’s a little weird to ask you.”

After a good rest, Yuri was ready to get out and explore Almaty the next day. Getting to meet Otabek’s coach was neat, and the rink was almost brand-new. Dariya joined them to show them around her school and studio, where her teacher was highly impressed to meet a pupil of Lilia Baranovskaya and Okukawa Minako. Dariya was quite smug as they left. “She never believed me that I had a friend who had danced with those two. Minako’s kind of her hero.”

Dinner that night was with Otabek’s family – his parents, Selim and his family, Rayana and her family, and Dariya. Watching Otabek with his niblings was fun. The oldest, Aruzhan, was three. “Wait, how old is Rayana?” Yuri whispered to Otabek at one point.

“Twenty-one. Turlan’s a couple years older and came right away, they dated for about a year, and got married when Rayana was seventeen. She always talked about how she wanted to be a mom, so we were all happy for her when she announced she was pregnant a few months after the wedding.”

That certainly explained it. Yuri couldn’t imagine wanting kids that early, but he wasn’t quite opposed to the idea either – if he had a soulmate he could trust. “Do you want kids?”

“Not that young, unless my soulmate does and there’s a big enough gap that I feel more comfortable being a dad, but yeah. Assuming my soulmate’s someone I trust to either be a parent or to get out of my way and let me do it, I’d love to have kids. Family’s important, you know?”

“Get out of your way and let you do it? You’d accept that?” Yuri sure as hell wouldn’t. There was no way he would ever want to be a single parent. Grandpa probably wouldn’t be able to do much to help him out, and how was he supposed to do it without help? A small voice in his head argued that Yuuri and Viktor would be there for him, or even Mila, but would they?

Otabek just shrugged. “If I end up being a single dad, I know for a fact that I have family that would rally around me and make sure my kids grew up fine. It’s not like you, where all your siblings that you know of are so much younger than you there’s no way to know what they’ll grow up to be, and you don’t have aunts or uncles. I’d rather have my soulmate or a good friend to raise my kids with, but I’m okay with being a single dad over not having kids. I just don’t want someone like Lev or who would hit my kids or mistreat them or whatever. What about you? I know you’d want your soulmate to be there to raise them, but do you even want kids?”

“Yeah, I think so. Not for a while. At the very least, I want to be through with school, and then I don’t have to have a kid if I’m going to be training in Japan with Yuuri and Viktor after Yakov retires. If they want to stay in Russia, or for whatever reason I end up skating for someone else, that might make things different.” Waiting until he was done skating appealed to Yuri, so he’d never have to leave his kid like Viktor and Yuuri had left Ryoko. It would depend on his soulmate, though. If his soulmate was someone like Rayana who wanted kids right away, he’d probably be willing to do it.

On Tuesday, Yuri and Otabek went to the Medeu, a famous skating rink in the mountains near Almaty, with the plan to hike to Kok-Zhailyau after looking around the rink for a bit. A couple of Otabek’s friends came with them. Zubair was one of Otabek’s oldest friends, having known each other since preschool. He wasn’t going to come with them on the hike, but he could hang out with them around Medeu until they left and he joined his hockey team for some skating drills. His girlfriend Tahmina also came, and she would join them on the hike, and she brought her friend Juldyz.

Juldyz turned out to be Yuri’s favorite. For one thing, the first thing she asked when she got in the car was, “Where’s Dariya? Who’s being dumb?”

“Oh, you know. School, mostly, but also Mom and Dad. They’re going to do as much as they can to keep Dariya away from us.”

“Ugh.” Yuri smirked appreciatively at the disgust in Juldyz’s voice. “School is evil. So worth skipping for important cultural experiences, don’t you think, Yuri?”

“Wouldn’t know. I’ve never been to a real school. One of the best things ever about skating for Yakov, we get tutors instead.” Which was how Otabek was finishing his current year of school in Canada despite moving back to Kazakhstan, and then he planned to do his last year the same way. It was going to be awesome. He hoped they could convince Otabek’s parents to let Dariya do school that way if Otabek took her with him if he left the country for a soulmate. “But it would be nice to be able to bring Dariya with us on this trip.”

Another reason Yuri liked Juldyz was that she was a musician. She reminded him a bit of Cécile that way. The best thing, though, was that when he mentioned something Viktor had done, he had to tell her who Viktor was. “Oh, right, figure skater. No offense, Yuri, you and Beks and Dariya are awesome and I respect the hell out of you guys for doing what you do, but I find it boring as hell and only really watch you three. I know Viktor’s supposed to be really great, but I don’t have any reason to care about him.”

“No offense taken at all.” It was hours before Yuri’s grin faded completely.

They finally got back to Almaty around 6:30, giving them just enough time to get showered and dressed properly to go out to Otabek’s grandmother’s place for dinner. Yuri was rather grateful for the long hike of the day – he’d been distracted by the gorgeous scenery and the fun of being around Tahmina and Juldyz and hadn’t spent the day freaking out about this dinner.

Right away, Otabek’s grandmother set Yuri’s teeth on edge. “So this is the boyfriend! My goodness, he looks like a gorgeous young soldier I knew once when I was young. Beka dear, you have excellent taste. Always regretted that that soldier wasn’t my soulmate.”

“He’s not my boyfriend, Grandma. I know what you’ve read, but it’s all speculation and rumor. Yura and I are friends. He’s not Dariya’s boyfriend either, just so you know.”

“Well of course not, dear, Dariya’s only into girls. Quit being ridiculous. Yuri, love, come on in, make yourself comfortable, dinner’s almost ready. Dari, love, come help me get everything on the table?”

Otabek took a deep breath as Dariya followed their grandmother, thunderous expression on her face. “Dariya hasn’t ever said anything to any of us about only being into girls. If true, no one cares, but Grandma is doing her ‘I’m your grandmothers and I know best’ idiocy, not outing Dariya or making assumptions about what she’s told you. I’m sorry.”

“Remind me to ask Grandpa if he ever spent time in Kazakhstan. I know he was a soldier for a while when he was young.” Might be kind of interesting to find out that he’d known Otabek’s grandmother back then. See if she’d always been embarrassing like this, or if it was a consequence of being a grandmother.

Things did not improve much from there. The food was all right, but Yuri had trouble getting over the idea that he was eating horse meat, which Otabek’s grandmother found hilarious. It tasted fine, when he could get past the mental block and actually eat some, but knowing it was horse just made the whole thing weird. “Foreign soulmates, never easy,” Otabek’s grandmother said with a sigh. “At least a food problem is more easily overcome than poor Rayana’s soulmate insisting on such ridiculous clothes for her.”

“Grandma, you know Rayana is happy and she could choose not to wear it if she didn’t want to,” Otabek said. 

“So she says,” Otabek’s grandmother scoffed. “That shouldn’t be a problem for you, at least. From what I’ve seen, your Yuri dresses much the same way you and your friends do.”

“He’s not my Yuri,” Otabek snapped. “Grandma, what is wrong with you?”

“Wrong with me?” She shot Yuri a wink. “I’m not the one who can’t seen what’s so obvious to everyone around the two of you. He may not be your Yuri yet, but give it six months and he will be.”

“Fine. Then in six months, if you’re right, you can crow all you want. Until then, shut. Up.” Yuri stared between Otabek and his grandmother, trying to imagine what would happen if he’d ever spoken to his grandfather that way. He never would, of course, but that wasn’t the point.

Dariya kicked his shin under the table. “This is normal,” she whispered. “Don’t worry about it. We bicker like this all the time.”

“Really? Huh.” Once again, Yuri was reminded how little he understood family. Maybe this was normal for big families?

Otabek’s grandmother at least stopped teasing them for the night, and the rest of the dinner passed mostly with Otabek and Dariya’s grandmother telling embarrassing stories about them as children, or Yuri explaining his complicated family tree, or talk about skating. As they got ready to leave, she caught Yuri and pulled him back inside for a bit. “I tease my grandson, but whether you and he are soulmates or not, you will always be one of the most important people in his life, and you are one of Dariya’s biggest heroes. You are Nikolai Plisetsky’s grandson, aren’t you?” Yuri nodded. “Ask your grandfather about Fariza Erzhanev, and I’m sure he will tell you what I will do to people who hurt the ones I love. Do we understand each other?”

“Yes ma’am.” Yuri headed outside to where Otabek and Dariya were waiting.

“What was that about?” Dariya asked. “Grandma feel the need to shovel talk you?”

“Yeah, apparently.” Yuri shrugged. “I’m not worried about her. I do anything stupid enough to either of you that she needs the shovel, I’m going to have way bigger problems than her.”

“Good.” Dariya shoved her hands in her pockets. “For the record, I am not only into girls. Mostly, yes, but there are a few guys too.”

“Is Yura one of them?”

“Ew, no.” Dariya’s nose wrinkled in disgust at the idea, and Yuri couldn’t blame her one bit. He didn’t even need to hear the explanation, but Dariya gave it anyway. “No offense, Yuri, but you’re like my brother. Julien LeRoy is the only one either of you would know, the others are K-pop stars.”

Yuri snorted at that. Of course he'd have no idea who they were. It was slightly disturbing to realize his friend had such terrible taste in music, but everyone had their flaws, right?


End file.
